Gwen's Goblin WIP

This is a work in progress. Gwen made the head last Christmas (or was it the year before?) and we finally put together the body, made feet and hands, and gave the goblin a leaf to munch on. The blue hair nicely matches the facial colors. The next step is put put on some underwear and clothes. I think she is doing an amazing job!

 

Encaustic 9x12

Silver Clay Certification

I completed these projects to get certified to teach At Clay silver techniques. I learned so much about both silver jewelry creation and silver clay manipulation.

 

new paintings

I have been experimenting with Open Acrylics, which are workable for a very long time like oils, but clean up with water and dry like acrylics. They are really nice to work with. The first painting is a portrait of a cocker spaniel named Gracie, and was painted as a gift for my friend and sister.

The second is a painting of Tiara walking in the deep snow. I'm not sure about this one - it is still a work in progress and may need a significant overhaul before I can consider it done.

Felted Borzoi

I finally got around to trying my hand at felting a borzoi. This is about three inches tall. I spent the whole afternoon on it, and left it on the table for two minutes while I went to find some beads for eyes, and Tiara managed to steal it off the table and started chewing on it. Then I got it a bit wet, hoping for soft curls, and I ended up with frizz. How frustrating! I think it turned out OK, though. Still needs eyes - the beads weren't the right size.

right side

left side

new work

I have been playing with the new Open Acrylics by Golden, and thought it was about time I shared some of my attempts. The Open acrylics are lovely to work with - they are designed to allow more fluid working, and feel more like oil paints. I have been trying to work more impasto, although it is hard to let go and nto strive for realism. The first is a generic 'zoi image I found on the web. I apologise to the owner who took the gorgeous original that I found so inspiring - I forgot to record whose dog it was.

This one is of Tiara. Both paintings are small (8x10 on canvas).

I have also been playing with encaustics again, and finished this landscape (8x10 on 2" cradled wood).
 

Thansk for looking!

How cool is this!

I finally tried to fuse some glass this weekend. It was so simple to do. I used a schedule I found online, and it took 14 hours! Rio Grande says I can shorten it significantly, so I will try the easier way next time. There are just so many fun possibilities with fused glass!

Although I haven't posted in a while, I have been doing a variety of different creative ventures. I finally signed up for the introduction to silversmithing through Bedrock, and absolutely LOVED the course. We learned how to solder, make rings, two kinds of settings (bezel and tube), and pierced metal. It was so great and so inspiring. I signed up for an on-line newsletter called Jewelry Making Daily, and won this book!

http://www.interweavestore.com/Jewelry/Books/Silversmithing-for-Jewelry-Makers.html

This is an absolutely fabulous book. Before I took the course, it would have all seemed quite daunting and mysterious, but now that I understand some of the terms, I can see that this book has such a wealth of information that it will become one of my main references from now on. Each technique has a section providing details about what it is and what it does, and then there are little projects to follow along and try the technique. It seemed small (190 pages in soft binding), but it has an encyclopedia worth of information packed into the pages.

Definitely worth the investment at twice the price.